


Dangerous Driving

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 00:39:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3830698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There had been a bad road accident...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dangerous Driving

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday, prompt 'blue' but also using the previous prompt 'accident' and an earlier one, 'fracture'

"Ellison! Sandburg! My office!"

"Our master calls," Blair murmured as he got to his feet, and Jim's lips twitched slightly as he, too, rose. They crossed to Simon's office and went in.

The expression on Simon's face was far from happy.

"What's wrong?" Blair asked.

"There's been an accident," Simon said quietly. "Connor's in Cascade General."

"What happened?"

"That's what I want you two to go and find out. All I have is the report from Traffic, letting me know one of my officers was involved in a four-car pileup."

"Did they say how bad - ?"

"One of the drivers is dead. Everyone else was taken to Cascade General. That's all I know. I'd go myself to check on Connor, but I have a meeting in half an hour that I can't miss. The only way I'd get out of attending is if I were dead - and even then I have my doubts that the Mayor would accept that as a valid excuse."

Simon's comment didn't surprise either man - his views on Mayor Haywass were uncomplimentary and well known in the bullpen. Come to that, they were shared by everyone in the bullpen, where the man was not-so-affectionately known as Mayor Jackass.

Jim and Blair wasted no time leaving Simon's office, delayed long enough to save the file Blair had been working on and close down the computer, then headed down to the garage.

***

When they got to the hospital, they discovered that of the eight people who had been taken there - the ninth had been taken direct to the morgue since there was absolutely no doubt that he was killed instantly, his head, three-quarters amputated by a large piece of shattered glass and hanging from his neck at a most unnatural angle making the diagnosis of 'dead' inarguable - three had already been patched up and released. The others had all been admitted, although it was probable that four of them would only be kept in overnight. At least one of the drivers was in a serious condition. Traffic, it seemed, had been pretty slow in contacting Simon.

They found Megan looking really blue; it was easy to see how down she was. One arm was in a cast - her right arm.

"Okay, what did you do to yourself?" Blair asked, trying to make a joke of things.

She shook her head. "It could have been worse," she admitted. "My arm's fractured, and although the doctor'll clear me for light duty, because it's my right arm I'll have problems."

"Yeah, you're pretty right-handed, aren't you," Blair agreed.

"One of my brothers is completely ambidextrous," she muttered. "I've always envied him for that. The other is semi-ambidextrous; he's about sixty percent left-handed but there's almost nothing he can't do with either hand, even if he prefers to use his left hand most of the time. I'm the only one who's almost completely right-handed. Oh, I've trained myself to use my left hand for some things, but from choice I'll always use my right hand."

"But that's your only actual injury?" Jim asked.

"Apart from a few bruises."

"So what actually happened? All Simon knew was that you'd been in a four vehicle accident."

"He'd have come himself, and he probably will later, but he had a meeting with the Jackass and you know what he's like," Blair added.

"Yeah," Megan muttered. "What happened? It was an idiot driving carelessly - but then isn't that what causes most accidents? Car A sort of appeared out of the blue, driving out of a side road at a ridiculous speed for someone joining a main street, didn't look as if he was even thinking of stopping. Car B was overtaking car C and A hit him; they slammed sideways into C and the three slid across the road and central reservation into my carriageway. I'd hit the brakes as soon as I saw what was happening, but in retrospect I'd have been better hitting the accelerator - if I had I'd have been clear instead of being a sitting duck.

"Anyway, the driver of car C was killed. Flying glass. When we were waiting in emergency the drivers of cars A and B had a right blue over which one was actually to blame - till I pointed out to them that I'm a cop and saw what happened." She grinned, this time with definite glee. "A, although he seemed to be more badly hurt, was trying to browbeat B into being less sure of the facts; he totally shut up when he realized that a witness, especially one whose car was hit as well, was a cop."

"And as well as dangerous driving, he'll be charged with causing death by dangerous driving," Jim said.

"How will you manage when you get home?" Blair asked.

Megan smiled. "Rhonda," she said. "We share an apartment, the same way you and Jim do. Her landlord decided to sell the apartment she was in and offered it to her, but she didn't have the money to buy it; I had a spare room, so... " She chuckled. "Pretty well the same story as you two. It was supposed to be temporary, just a week or two till she found somewhere else, but we found that we enjoyed sharing our space. If I ever go back to Australia, she'll just take it over, but seriously? I like it here. I'm still officially employed by New South Wales, so I might have to resign and apply for a job here; but from what I hear, the bloke who went from here to New South Wales loves it there, and he'd be happy to stay, so our bosses will probably just settle for a permanent exchange."

They spent a little more time with Megan, then went in search of the doctors who had treated the various victims.

They found one leaving the bedside of the most badly injured driver.

"Which one is he?" Jim asked after introducing himself. "The one who drove out of a side street, or the one that he hit first?"

"I don't know," the doctor replied. "My job is to patch them up after they've inflicted sometimes serious damage on each other. But there are two traffic cops still here - they might know."

"How bad is this one?" Blair asked.

"Bad spinal injury. He's looking at life in a wheelchair."

"In that case," Jim said, "I hope to hell he was the one who caused the accident."

And as it turned out, he was.


End file.
